Study Reveals Why Van Gogh Signed Only as 'Vincent'

Art historian Julia Engelmayer's study 'Simply Vincent: An Overview of Van Gogh's Signed Paintings', published online by the Van Gogh Museum, reveals that only 133 of Van Gogh's 840 surviving paintings (16%) bear a signature—an unusually low proportion for a 19th-century artist. Van Gogh signed with his first name due to strained family relations and the difficulty non-Dutch speakers had pronouncing 'Van Gogh'. Most signatures (75) are in red, a color he used for contrast, often at a 45-degree angle. He signed when pleased with a work or as a gift. The only painting sold during his lifetime, 'The Red Vineyard' (1888), remained unsigned. Separately, two Van Gogh paintings are included in 'Cassirer and the Breakthrough of Impressionism' at Berlin's Alte Nationalgalerie until 27 September, and two Van Gogh prints are featured in 'Beyond Impressionism: Printmaking from Manet to Picasso' at the Holburne Museum in Bath until 13 September.